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Oscar Pistorius

PRETORIA. — The High Court in Pretoria has heard details about former paralympian Oscar Pistorius’ temper tantrums and how warders discovered illegal medication in his cell.

A clinical psychologist has also testified that the convicted murderer has admitted that he shot through the bathroom door intentionally.

Pistorius is being sentenced again, this time for murder, and not culpable homicide for the 2013 shooting of his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp.

Prosecutor Gerrie Nel told the court that he will lead evidence about Pistorius’ temper tantrums.

He says last year, warders found him in possession of illegal medication.

These incidents did not feature in defence witness, psychologist doctor Jonathan Scholtz’s report.

The doctor says the athlete suffers from extreme depression and anxiety, and his mental health has deteriorated in the last two years.

Scholtz told the court that it would not be advisable for the former athlete to be sent back to prison.

Meanwhile, Pistorius has not been acting like a broken man, and has confronted one of the officers who investigated his murder of Reeva Steenkamp, the High Court in Pretoria heard yesterday.

“He confronted an investigator, Colonel (Mike) van Aardt directly, saying ‘please give us space and privacy, you didn’t do your job in any case’.

“That’s not a person who’s given up on life. That’s a person in charge,” prosecutor Gerrie Nel told psychologist Prof Jonathan Scholtz. He was cross-examining Scholtz, who testified for the defence that further imprisonment would not serve Pistorius socially or psychologically, as he was a defeated man and had lost all hope.

Nel asked Scholtz whether, during his compilation of his report on Pistorius, he had access to correctional services documents indicating his temper tantrums. Scholtz said he did not.

He confronted one correctional services official, a sister Mashobane, in January, Nel said.

“He got so upset with sister Mashobane that he approached her in her office. He was shaking and he banged the table.” Nel referred to four correctional services officials sitting behind him in court — one woman and three men. — News24/EWN.